Unknown Location
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
A continuous dripping sound hit my static filled ears. A dull ache swelled inside my head. My mouth felt dry, making it feel as if I had decided to shovel handfuls of sand down my throat. The stench of mold and stagnant water invading my nose. My eyes slowly rippled open. Gray surrounded my peripheral vision- concrete maybe? I attempted to lift an arm, but it didn't budge.
Grogginess consumed my senses. I shifted my blurred vision to the thick yellow blurs that bound my wrists to the chair I was sitting in. My heavy eyes narrowing in on a red line-that I think is a gash on the top of my left hand. I couldn't feel it, not with the tingling still coursing through my body. How long have I been out?
"Astrid?" A voice rang in my ears.
Using all my strength, I lifted my head to the source. Despite the haze I instantly recognized the fuzzy source to be the man from the coffee shop, seated in a chair across from me. Illuminated by a flickering kerosene lantern that rested in-between us. Something was in his lap, but I couldn't quite make it out yet. I dug my fingernails against the metal chair while anger rose within me. My lips turned downwards, as I tried to glare at the man.
"Easy there, tiger," the man soothed, leaning forwards. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just had to do some tests to ensure you were the real Astrid, not some shifter." I blinked at the man, my vision starting to sluggishly shift back to normal.
Real Astrid? What's this man waffling on about? Wait, how does he even know my name?
From what I could tell we were alone in this small concrete room. Feeling the tingling slowly ebb from my body, I mustered my strength and tried to lunge forwards with a snarl on my face.
"I've been looking for you for six years, but with you constantly moving around it was impossible to keep a track on you," the man calmly spoke, clasping his hands together.
"Maybe you just suck at tracking," my voice was barely a whisper, but regardless it was tinged with venom.
The man let loose a hearty chuckle that shook his entire body. "You're just like your father."
I squinted my eyes at the man at the mention of my dad, acid flooding my veins.
"You have his fire," he began as his face softened. "But hell, you look exactly like your mother. It's so ... eerie."
"Go fuck yourself," I gritted out.
"He wanted you to have a normal life... the life we never had growing up. Everyone told him, told him it would never last, but he wouldn't listen. The stubbornness that man had could counter the devil himself." The man picked up the object in his lap-my gun. My heart thrashed in my chest, but I kept my features frigid. "This was William's," he softly spoke while his eyes examined the gun in his hand. How in the hell does he know any of this information.
I continued glowering at the man, that heat bubbling just below the skin on my chest. Its violent flurry rippling to the rest of my body causing me to tremble-but not in fear.
His eyes floated down to my chest. "You still wear it... good." My vision followed his gaze to my necklace that was now sitting on top of my shirt. How does he know so much about my parents-my dad especially? "I want you to tell me what happened," he breathed. "What happened to your parents?"
"Either let me go or kill me... I don't know what bullshit you are trying to accomplish," I fumed, keeping my glare pointed at the man.
My body stiffened as he stood, pulling a knife from his jacket. Raising my chin, I kept any fear I felt pulsating through me from reaching my face. I would die with dignity.

YOU ARE READING
Eclipse of Vengeance
FantasyAstrid Greene had been a fairly typical teenage girl; attending high school, playing sports, and nightly family dinners. That all changed when a cloaked being slaughtered her parents in front of her at just fifteen. Instead of finishing high school...